NGT did not favour environmental parties in any merit appeal during first half of 2026: Report

Guwahati: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) did not issue a favourable ruling for environmental or public-interest parties in any of their merit appeals during the first six months of 2026, according to an analysis by the South Asian Reporter for Environment Laws (SAREL).

The analysis examined 119 appeals filed before the NGT’s five benches between January and June 2026. Of these, environmental or public-interest groups filed 16 merit appeals, while project proponents, industries and property owners filed 51. The remaining cases were either disposed of on procedural grounds or did not result in a decision on merits.

According to the findings, none of the 16 merit appeals filed by the environmental or public-interest side resulted in a favourable judgment. In contrast, project proponents, property owners and industry secured favourable orders in 30 of their 51 merit appeals, giving them a success rate of 58.8 per cent. A further 6 per cent of their cases resulted in the status quo being maintained.

The analysis also highlighted the significant role of procedural dismissals. Around 44 per cent of all appeals examined were dismissed on grounds such as limitation, jurisdiction, maintainability or withdrawal without the tribunal reaching the merits of the cases.

The distribution varied across the NGT’s regional benches. At the Principal Zone Bench in Delhi, the industry, project-proponent and property-owner side won five of 10 merit appeals. At the Western Zone Bench in Pune, it won 15 of 24, while nine of 12 were won at the Southern Zone Bench in Chennai. At the Central Zone Bench in Bhopal, the same side secured one of five merit appeals.

The Eastern Zone Bench in Kolkata decided only one matter during the six-month period covered by the analysis. That case was filed by the public-interest side and was dismissed, while no project-proponent appeal was decided by the bench during the period.

The findings emerged around the same time as Chief Justice of India Surya Kant addressed an NGT international conference in New Delhi. Speaking at the event, the CJI said courts should approach environmental protection and development as objectives that need to be harmonised rather than treated as mutually exclusive.

The analysis therefore provides a snapshot of NGT merit appeals during January-June 2026, while the figures do not cover cases that were dismissed without a merits ruling or matters outside the appeal category examined by SAREL.